- Links -

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Reading ...

... a blog post by Paul Williams, who was filming a BBC wildlife series in Sri Lanka when he came upon an orphaned baby squirrel ...

[...] I've now been in Sri Lanka for 3 weeks filming leopards and ancient temples for a BBC2 wildlife series called Monsoon. Two weeks ago, at 3am, we came back from our night shift filming in Wilpatu national park, and there in the dark was Rob the baby palm squirrel laying on the floor of the hotel car park. At first I thought he was dead but then I noticed a little twitch. I scooped up his weak and cold body and warmed him in my hands. I presumed that he had either fallen out of the nest, or had been kicked out by a sibling. My first hope was to reunite him with his mother. I put him into a secure spot as high as I could in the tree that I presumed he had fallen from. I covered him in a layer of tissue to help him keep warm and I waited. I had hoped that mum would be looking for him and would hear his little squeaks but by morning he was still there.

The crew and I searched the area for any sign of a nest or other palm squirrels, but we didn't spot any. We then used our thermal camera which we are using to spot and film nocturnal animals in the park. It's great for showing warm patches where little animals are nesting. Unfortunately it showed us no thermal hotspots in any of the trees where Rob could have come from. I couldn't just leave him. He would have died if I hadn't have found him and so he became an honorary part of the crew ...